The State of Qatar, through a number of initiatives, is performing a great job not only for the uplift of Arab youth but also for an important cause of bridging gulfs and removing misunderstandings between various civilizations.
As Qatar Foundation is continuously doing great service to the young community of Arab world by its different ongoing projects related to promotion of education and culture of science and technology among the youth, Qatar’s Ministry of Culture and Sports has also taken many initiatives to achieve the same goals.
Youth consist of over 32% of the population of the Arab region. Youth between the ages of 15 and 29 years old represent over 100 million of the current population of the Arab world. Therefore, the progress and prosperity of entire Arab world hinges upon the educational excellence and behavioral mature patterns of its youth.
The Arab European Youth Forum for the Alliance of Civilizations, hosted by Doha for the third time, started yesterday with the participation of 80 young people from both sexes from 25 Arab and foreign countries and will continue until November 26.
The opening ceremony was attended by Minister of Culture and Sports H E Salah bin Ghanem Al Ali, and a number of Ambassadors of several Arab and foreign countries accredited to the State of Qatar.
Abdulrahman Al-Hajri, Director of the Department of Youth Affairs at the Ministry of Culture and Sports, said in his inaugural speech that intercultural dialogue still requires theoretical and methodological consolidation that moves it from the stage of discourse to action as it is not a product of decisions; but it is the outcome of behavioral education for youth and cognitive accumulation as well as values of tolerance and coexistence practice and acceptance of the other different within the framework of mutual respect and cooperation to build bridges of trust among nations.
The four-day Forum will discuss three main themes: ‘Cooperation between cultures and civilizations: live experiences and testimonies’; ‘The role of sport in spreading the culture of rapprochement among civilizations’; ‘Citizenship and the consolidation of the culture of human rights’. In a similar activity, last week, the Ministry of Culture and Sports successfully organized the Arab-European 50-50 Youth Training Course under the title ‘Youth Participation and Gender Equality’.
Youth from 11 Arab and 14 European countries, with one participant from each country and four participants from the State of Qatar attended the training course. The course aimed at working on intercultural convergence, especially with regard to gender equality in terms of promotions, positions, education and health.
